Monday, August 12, 2013

Manager Clymer, of the Buffalo team, has complained to President Barrow, of the International League that he has been grossly insulted by players of rival clubs in that circuit. Barrow, it is said, has written a circular letter to the other managers to the effect that any player who openly insults Clymer on the ball field in future will be suspended for the rest of the season and will be heavily fined.

“Hey, Clymer! You went 0-for-11 in the big leagues with two errors in three games! You suck!”

Reader Comments and Retorts

Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.

Adrian Beltre milestone watch: with two hits yesterday, Beltre passes Brett Butler and ties Edd Roush for 122nd on the career list (2,376).

Fun to see Juan Pierre approach Joe DiMaggio, but Beltre passed DiMaggio quite awhile ago. He's getting to the point where nearly every guy he passes is either a HOFer or has an excellent case. Some exceptions, of course: Chili Davis is up next with 2,380, but generally speaking

Game of the day (Friday): Twins 3, White Sox 2 (10). Liam Hendriks vs. Charles Leesman; it's the first 2013 pitching matchup I've written about in which I've never heard of either player. Leesman (for the Sox) was making his MLB debut, while Hendriks had made the bigs in 2011 and 2012, and was beginning the 23rd game of his career.

Leesman's first big league inning was a bit of an adventure; Brian Dozier welcomed him up with a leadoff double. A groundout and a strikeout failed to advance the runner, Josh Willingham drew a two-out walk, and Leesman then notched a second strikeout to end the inning. (None of the outs were Joe Mauer, who sat this one out as it was the second game of a doubleheader.) Leesman's second inning passed more calmly, as he struck out the first two batters. He then walked Clete Thomas, watched a passed ball move him to second, and walked Doug Bernier before getting Dozier to ground into a force. In the third, Jamey Carroll led off with a single before being stranded.

Meanwhile, Hendriks retired the first nine White Sox in order. Minnesota took the lead in the fourth on a solo homer by Chris Herrmann, and proceeded to squander a Thomas double afterward. In the bottom of the fourth, Alejandro de Aza led off with a single, ending the nascent perfect game bid. One out later, he was caught stealing - and two pitches afterward, Alexei Ramirez launched a solo homer to tie the game (but not take the lead - not any more).

The game settled back down quickly after the momentary fireworks; Leesman worked around a walk in the fifth, while Hendriks was perfect again. Leesman issued a walk to start the sixth as well, and was pulled for Ramon Troncoso, who pulled off a rare feat: he faced only two batters and walked one of them, but recorded three outs. The inherited runner, Chris Colabello, was caught stealing on Troncoso's fourth pitch. Herrmann then drew a full count walk, and Thomas grounded into a double play to end the inning.

Blake Tekotte led off the bottom of the sixth with the third hit Hendriks had allowed all game - and the second homer. It was also the first homer of Tekotte's career (it could end up as the only one - he's 26, has less than 100 big-league PAs with an OPS+ of 49, and his AAA numbers over two seasons aren't exactly world-beating). Hendriks then allowed a single and a walk (Gordon Beckham and Adam Dunn, respectively) before closing out the inning without further scoring. Troncoso was pulled after Jamey Carroll's two-out single in the seventh, and Donnie Veal struck out Justin Morneau to end the inning.

Hendriks allowed hits to Conor Gillaspie and Josh Phlegley to put runners on the corners with one out in the seventh before being removed; Caleb Thielbar took his place and ended the inning with a strikeout and a flyout. Matt Lindstrom entered for the top of the eighth; his third pitch was lifted over the left field fence by Willingham, tying the game at 2. A Colabello single and a Herrmann walk put the go-ahead run in scoring position with one out, but Thomas popped out and Mauer (pinch hitting) grounded out to leave it there.

Josh Roenicke worked around a Dunn single in the eighth, and Addison Reed did the same in the ninth with a Carroll base hit. Brian Duensing retired Chicago in order in the bottom of the inning, and Dylan Axelrod entered to pitch the top of the tenth, accompanied by some interesting defensive maneuvering: Jeff Keppinger had hit for Jordan Danks in the ninth and took over at first base, which meant the Sox moved Dunn to left field (on purpose), and also repositioned their other two outfielders. And none of it mattered, because Oswaldo Arcia hit Axelrod's second pitch over the center field wall to give Minnesota the lead. Glen Perkins closed out the Chicagoans in the tenth, despite plunking Avisail Garcia to start the inning.

Five solo homers in a 3-2 game, so no actual successful rallying by either club. Also, the teams' lineups looked like what you'd expect between two also-rans a month and a half from now. And yet, it was still an exciting game, because of timing, and because of the sprinkling in of a few big league firsts for various unknown White Sox.

Leesman's kind of fun to watch, but he's not likely to have a long major league career. Lefty, 89-91 FB that moves a little like a cutter, ordinary offspeed pitches, relies on deception (he throws from a 3/4 arm slot). When he's throwing strikes, he gets a lot of grounders and can be hard to hit, but when his command is just a little bit off the ball will fly.

Game of the day (Saturday): Rangers 5, Astros 4. Brad Peacock vs. Derek Holland. Both starters were perfect in the first; Peacock worked around a two-out walk in the second, while Holland got into rather more trouble (having Jason Castro reach on an error, then allowing a Chris Carter single to move him to third) before extracting himself with two strikeouts and a flyout. The Rangers got runners to second and third in the next inning on a David Murphy walk and a Leonys Martin single and steal of second before a strikeout and popup ended the inning. In the bottom of the third, Robbie Grossman singled, LJ Hoes hit into a force, and Jose Altuve doubled him home with the game's first run.

Texas loaded the bases in the fourth when Adrian Beltre was hit by a pitch, Alexis Rios singled (and took second on the throw to third), and Mitch Moreland walked, but a strikeout and a flyout wasted the opportunity, and Chris Carter homered in the bottom of the inning to make it a 2-0 lead for Houston. Martin drew a leadoff walk in the fifth, but was later caught stealing, and no other runner reached in either half of the inning. AJ Pierzynski homered in the top of the sixth to bring the Rangers within a run, but an Altuve walk, a Castro single, and a Carter walk loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning, and Matt Dominguez restored the two-run margin with a sac fly. Brett Wallace then hit into a double play, ending both the inning and the portion of the game pitched by either starter.

Facing Kevin Chapman, Jurickson Profar led off the seventh by reaching on a Jake Elmore error. Two outs later, Elvis Andrus picked an excellent time to hit his first home run in nearly a full year (September 4 of last season), lifting a game-tying 2-run shot into the Crawford boxes. Brandon Barnes greeted Jason Frasor with a single in the bottom of the inning, moved to second on a bunt, and stole third on ball 4 to Hoes. Hoes then swiped second behind him, and Barnes came home with the go-ahead run on a wild pitch.

Lucas Harrell, having taken over with two out in the seventh, remained on the mound for Houston in the eighth. With one out, Pierzynski doubled, and Rios followed with a game-tying triple. Moreland then grounded to second, with Rios racing home; the throw beat him, but Jason Castro dropped the ball, allowing Rios to slide in safely to give Texas its first lead of the day. A Dominguez single and a Wallace walk put two Astros on against Joakim Soria in the bottom of the eighth, but Barnes struck out to end the inning, and Joe Nathan worked around a Grossman walk in the ninth to nail down the save.

Rios went 2/3 with a triple and a walk, drove in the tying run and scored the winner. Not bad at all for his first day on a new team.

Game of the day (yesterday): Reds 3, Padres 2 (13). Mike Leake vs. Ian Kennedy, making his second start as a Padre. Neither pitcher allowed a hit in the first, although Kennedy did walk Joey Votto.

The same could not be said in the second. Yonder Alonso and Logan Forsythe started the inning with singles, and Ronny Cedeno singled to load the bases one out later. Rene Rivera (not Ruben as I first hoped when seeing "R Rivera" in the play-by-play) flied to center, scoring Alonso, and Forsythe also came home on Cesar Izturis's throwing error, giving San Diego a 2-0 lead.

Kennedy again worked around a walk in the second, and Leake did the same with a Chase Headley single in the third. Leake then picked up the first Red hit of the game, leading off the bottom of the third with a single; he moved to second on a wild pitch before being stranded there. Forsythe drew a walk to lead off the fourth, and stole second on strike 3 to Cedeno, which was the second out of the inning. Rivera was intentionally walked to get to Kennedy (yes, it was the first intentional walk in over 500 career PA, in which he has barely OPS'd .500; he's a better hitter than Kennedy, but it's close). Kennedy then drew an unintentional walk to load the bases, and Will Venable struck out to end the inning, so the intentional walk "worked," I guess.

After that inning, neither team put a runner on until Cedeno tripled with two outs in the sixth. Venable doubled with one out in the seventh, and took third on an errant pickoff throw; Alexi Amarista then grounded to first, with Venable getting thrown out in a rundown trying to score and Amarista alertly making it to second on the play. Headley popped out to end the inning.

In the top of the eighth, Leake was replaced by Manny Parra, who allowed a leadoff hit to Alonso. Forsythe bunted the runner to second, and Chris Denorfia greeted JJ Hoover by grounding out, moving Alonso to third. Cedeno then struck out to leave the runner on.

At this point, Kennedy had thrown four consecutive perfect innings. He also retired the first batter in the eighth, making it 16 in a row (he'd gotten three straight outs in the third after Leake singled). Zack Cozart ended that string with a single, and pinch hitter Xavier Paul ended the shutout and eliminated the lead with a two-run homer to tie the game. Kennedy finished out the frame without further excitement, but what had already come was plenty.

Aroldis Chapman struck out the side in the top of the ninth, and Colt Hynes combined with Luke Gregerson on a scoreless bottom of the inning, gifting the fans with bonus baseball. Headley singled against Jonathan Broxton in the tenth, but his teammates failed to advance him; Dale Thayer set the Reds down in order in the bottom half.

Facing Logan Ondrusek, Denorfia and Cedeno started the eleventh with singles. Rivera lined a bunt back to the pitcher, which proved to be a significant play when Ondrusek was called for a balk with pinch hitter Mark Kotsay at the plate; had Denorfia been on third (and had the balk still happened, of course), the go-ahead run would have come in. Instead, the runners advanced only to second and third, Kotsay lined out, and Venable struck out. Nick Vincent set the top of the Cincinnati lineup down in order in the home half of the inning.

The Padres tried again in the twelfth. Amarista led off with a walk and stole second while Headley struck out. Alonso was intentionally walked, Forsythe flied out, and Denorfia drew a walk to load the bases. Sam LeCure replaced Ondrusek and got Cedeno to fly out, preserving the tie yet again. Vincent worked around a one-out Jay Bruce single to keep the game going.

San Diego gave it one more shot in the thirteenth when pinch hitter Jedd Gyorko led off with a double. Nick Hundley struck out, Venable grounded the runner to third, and Amarista grounded out to end the inning. Tim Stauffer took the mound in the latter half of the inning and walked Jack Hannahan with one out. Choo then doubled the runner to third, and Ryan Hanigan was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Votto followed with a game-ending sac fly.

The Padres had runners in scoring position with less than two outs in three consecutive extra innings, and brought none of them home. For the game overall, they went 1/17 with RISP, and left 15 runners on. (And the one hit with RISP didn't even score a run - it took them from first and second to bases loaded. It did set up the 2-run sac fly play, however.) This is the kind of game that drives fans and broadcasters nuts. On the other hand, they amassed 11 hits (including 2 doubles and a triple) and 6 walks, plus a pair of steals, in the game, and started rallies at all points in the order. The Padre offense is better than most people think (especially once you adjust for Petco); they just didn't cash in their chances in this one.

On the other side, the Reds brought home a win and further secured their playoff spot. The NL postseason race doesn't look like it's shaping up to be much this year, does it?

Game of the day (8/11/77): Orioles 4, Mariners 3. Glenn Abbott, a kind-of-mediocre pitcher having an OK year in mid-career, against Scott McGregor, who would eventually be a better-than-Abbott pitcher but was currently making his 6th career start (he spent most of '77 in relief).

Both teams wasted a first-inning baserunner - Dan Meyer reached on an Eddie Murray error and was caught stealing, while Ken Singleton singled and wasn't advanced. That allowed Seattle to open the scoring in the top of the second on singles by Leroy Stanton, Bill Stein, and Larry Milbourne. A walk to Larry Cox loaded the bases before Julio Cruz grounded out to end the inning.

In the bottom of the second, Murray reached on an error by Cruz and took second on a wild pitch before being left on. Tony Muser also made it on base in the third on a Milbourne miscue, and was also abandoned on the bases. Ruppert Jones led off the top of the fourth with a double, watched two teammates fail to advance him, and was then tagged out at third on a grounder to end the inning. The teams continued to underutilize their baserunners (a Doug DeCinces single in the bottom of the fourth, a Mark Belanger walk in the bottom of the fifth, and a Jones walk in the top of the sixth) until Ken Singleton, having realized that his teammates weren't going to score him if he reached base in standard fashion, sensibly led off the bottom of the sixth with a home run to tie the game.

McGregor retired the Mariners in order in the seventh, while Abbott hit Belanger and allowed a single to Dave Skaggs before recovering to strand both runners. McGregor then recorded two quick outs in the eighth. Meyer singled, however, and Stanton followed with a go-ahead 2-run homer. A hit batter later, Dick Drago replaced McGregor, and after a Stein single, notched the final out of the inning.

Abbott walked Murray and allowed a single to DeCinces in the eighth, but Andres Mora grounded out to strand them. Drago worked around a Cox double in the top of the ninth, giving his teammates a final opportunity. After Tom Shopay lined out, Pat Kelly drew a walk, and Abbott was replaced by Enrique Romo. Billy Smith reached on a Meyer error, and Muser's sac fly then brought Kelly home to make it 3-2. Singleton doubled, putting runners at second and third, and was pulled for pinch runner Kiko Garcia; Lee May followed with a single that plated both runners and ended the game.

I'm not quite sure how to sum this one up - it's a very good game but not an extraordinary one, and it involves a good team beating a bad team because the bad team gave them one chance too many, which isn't the first time that's happened. It also brought the Orioles to within a game and a half of the first-place Red Sox, with the Yankees lurking in third, 4 back. (The Yanks are also lurking as the team with the least-dramatic average game so far in 1977, and by a hefty margin.)

Sykes allowed a pair of hits in the first (to the washed up Jim Wynn and the having-his-best-year Don Money), but didn't allow either to score. In the bottom of the inning, Travers showed the form that earned him a 78 ERA+ in 1977, giving up a leadoff hit to Ron Leflore followed by a two-run homer by Tito Fuentes. It was Fuentes's fourth homer of the year in regular play, and would be the second-to-last of his career. With that start, you'd figure the actual quality hitters in the Tiger order were salivating. Rusty Staub singled and Steve Kemp was hit by a pitch, but Jason Thompson grounded into a double play. Mickey Stanley then walked, and Bob Adams grounded out to end the inning.

The starters calmed things down quickly, as a Jim Wohlford single in the top of the second represented the only baserunner either team would allow in the next two innings. Milwaukee assembled a rally in the fourth on singles by Money and Cecil Cooper and an error by Kemp that put Sal Bando on, loading the bases with nobody out. Wohlford flied out, with the runners holding. Lenn Sakata then hit into a force, scoring Money. The bases would reload on a walk before Robin Yount struck out with the tying run at third.

After that carefully constructed rally to score one run, the Brewers gave it right back on a homer by Adams. It was the first of two homers Adams would hit in his 24-PA major league career, all of which occurred in 1977. (With a career HR rate in the minors of about one every 66 at bats, it seems fair to assume that he would not have maintained his career .542 SLG had he stuck around longer.) The Brewers countered in the fifth, however, as Steve Brye homered to make it 3-2. Money walked and Cooper singled with one out, and Sykes was pulled for Steve Grilli, who recorded the second out before Wohlford singled to tie the game. Travers worked a perfect fifth, and with two outs in the sixth, Brye hit his second homer in as many innings, giving Milwaukee its first lead.

Detroit threatened in the sixth, with a walk by Kemp and a Stanley single, but didn't score. The Brewers then padded their lead in the seventh with John Hiller on the mound when Cooper singled, Wohlford doubled him in, and Sakata singled Wohlford around. The Tigers countered with a run in the eighth on consecutive doubles by Fuentes and Staub, but Bob McClure replaced Travers at that point, and after walking Kemp (and putting the tying run on), he retired six consecutive hitters to secure the save.

It was a game of unlikely homers - the Tigers got one from a long-career player who hit 45 total and one from a short-career player who hit 2, while the Brewers got one of the two multi-homer games in Steve Brye's 30-homer career. Having fought to a draw in the improbable longball contest, the teams turned to non-homer scoring to decide the game, and Milwaukee won that battle 4-1.

The teams traded several early baserunners without scoring - there was neither a perfect inning nor a run scored through the top of the fourth, with the Cubs getting the only runners to scoring position over that span. Pittsburgh finally put a nonzero number on the board in the bottom of the fourth when Dave Parker doubled and Bill Robinson singled him home, and the Cubs tied it in the sixth on a leadoff homer by Jerry Morales.

The Pirates didn't capitalize on Ken Macha's double in the sixth, nor on Mario Mendoza's two-bagger in the seventh; the second was more significant, because it led Pittsburgh to hit for Candelaria and the Cubs to remove Roberts for Dave Giusti. Giusti walked pinch hitter Jim Fregosi, and Willie Hernandez was summoned to get Omar Moreno on a strikeout and Parker on a bases-loaded foulout to end the inning. Goose Gossage came in for the top of the eighth, and the two relievers allowed only one baserunner through the remainder of regulation - Bobby Murcer reached on an eighth-inning error, which was followed by the first three 1-2-3 innings of the day.

Ivan de Jesus led off the tenth with a walk. Gene Clines fouled out on a bunt, but Bill Buckner singled to put runners on first and second, and a groundout moved them to second and third. Murcer was intentionally walked, and Larry Biittner popped out to leave the bases loaded. Hernandez responded with another perfect inning, and Gossage reverted to perfection in the eleventh as well.

Hernandez had hit for himself to end the eleventh, then was relieved by Paul Reuschel anyway (I suppose the Cubs might have been running short of bench players). Reuschel was perfect in the bottom of the inning, and he and Kent Tekulve traded spotless twelfths. Grant Jackson issued a pair of walks (one intentional) in the top of the thirteenth, while Reuschel kept the bases clear yet again in the bottom of the inning. Macha singled in the bottom of the fourteenth, and Jackson in the bottom of the fifteenth; they were the only batters to reach in those two innings. A two-out walk to Robinson and another hit by Macha put a runner in scoring position in the home sixteenth, the first Pirate runner to reach second since the seventh inning; Pittsburgh failed to advance him any further, however.

Jackson finally allowed another Cub to reach in the seventeenth when de Jesus singled, and Biittner also managed a hit in the eighteenth, but neither could move past first. Meanwhile, Pete Broberg took over for the Cubs in the seventeenth and retired the Pirates in order. In the eighteenth, however, a Phil Garner walk and a Parker single put runners on the corners with one out, and after Robinson was intentionally walked to load the bases, and pinch hitter Ed Ott ended things with a sac fly.

18 innings, and a total of 12 at bats with runners in scoring position by both teams. So if you like pitching... here you go. It does seem unusual in a 1977 context that both starters were pulled during the seventh, especially when you consider that Candelaria was in the process of leading the NL in ERA. But between Hernandez and Reuschel on the Cub side and Gossage and Jackson for the Pirates, there was plenty of exceptional moundwork to go around.